This disclosure relates to a trim piece and more particularly a decorative trim received on a base member such as a trim component or reveal received on a weatherstrip on an automotive vehicle. However, the process of manufacturing and resulting assembly may find use in related environments and applications.
It is often desired that a trim piece, bright strip, or upper reveal assembly be included on an automotive vehicle, and is typically associated with the weatherstrip. In some instances, the bright strip assembly may be a metal structure such as stainless steel or aluminum, or a composite bright strip assembly will be secured to a clip, while in other instances the bright strip is incorporated into the seal itself (see for example, co-pending commonly owned international application Serial No. PCT/US08/66887, filed 13 Jun. 2008, based on U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/934,359, filed 13 Jun. 2007, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference. There are even instances where a separate trim piece is not attached to the weatherstrip or glass run, but is attached directly to the body. For example, a bright strip may be pop-riveted to the automotive body.
In one known manufacturing process, a bright strip assembly is formed from metal such as stainless steel that is roll formed or preformed into a desired shape (for example, a generally C-shaped cross-section) and advanced into an extrusion head. A material such as plastic, e.g., polypropylene, is cross-extruded or co-extruded onto the metal preform. Although commercially successful, there is the potential that the stainless steel or metal bright strip component can be scratched while passing through the extrusion head in this process. Further, when the cross-extruded material is cooled on the metal preform, the different thermal coefficients of expansion of the different materials (metal and plastic, for example), have a tendency to warp the final profile of the assembly.
Generally, the bright strip assembly is attached to the weatherstrip at the supplier's manufacturing plant and the weatherstrip with the bright strip is shipped to the OEM where the weatherstrip with integrated bright strip is assembled to the vehicle. Thus, for example, a known process extrudes the plastic onto the metal perform and the sub-assembly is integrated into the weatherstrip that is shipped to the OEM assembly plant. In this manner, if there is a scratch on the bright strip, or another issue associated with the reveal molding at the assembly plant, it may be necessary to replace the entire weatherstrip. Occasionally it is necessary to remove the door from the automotive vehicle to replace the weatherstrip.
As noted above, there is still the issue that the known processes result in potential scratching of the bright strip, or potential warping, i.e., aesthetic issues that detract from the perceived value of the automotive vehicle. Aside from the aesthetics, this can be very expensive when dealing with certain metals such as stainless steel, for example, where it is desired to keep the scrap percentage extremely low because of the cost of the material. Thus, in addition to the cost of the component itself, there is also a desire to be able to service the decorative trim piece independent of the weatherstrip system.